Chapter 7

The next day, when Lance woke up, he immediately asked Wensir, “Can you teach me how to use my tail?”

Wensir glanced at Lance, motioning for him to sit still. He stepped forward, took Lance’s hands, untied the seaweed strap on his wrist, and then picked up a small shell from the side.

Lance took a look and saw that inside the shell was a pile of dark green seaweed mud.

“Where did this seaweed come from?”

Lance restlessly looked around, not seeing any plants.

Wensir’s body stiffened for a moment as he looked down at the shell in his hand, pursing his lips.

“By the way, did the tentacle come in again? This seaweed must have been brought in by the tentacle.”

Lance’s heart skipped a beat as he quickly found the reason.

Wensir let out a subtle sigh of relief. He reached out and tugged at Lance’s tail, saying, “Don’t run away, come here for the medicine.”

“The tentacle didn’t drop any meat tentacles today,” Lance replied, not caring that his tail was being pulled, curiously looking in a certain direction.

That spot was usually where the tentacle placed fresh meat tentacles, but today it was empty.

Thinking that there might not be any meat tentacles in the future, Lance felt a bit worried. “What should we do? There might not be any cover anymore.”

Wensir pulled Lance back by his tail, his expression quite complicated. “You want meat tentacles just to use them as cover?”

“Yeah.”

Lance showed no signs of survival instinct, “Although they taste good, I want them just to cover that hole.”

The corner of Wensir’s eye began to twitch, and he gritted his teeth, saying, “Well, there are small fish in here now, so you can hunt for yourself.”

Lance swished his tail, his ear fins drooping, looking dejected. “Sigh, I can’t just sit back and wait for food anymore.”

His tone of regret successfully made a vein pop up on Wensir’s forehead.

Lance keenly noticed a low pressure rising around Wensir. Although he didn’t understand why, he stopped talking, fearing that Wensir might get angry.

Wensir shot Lance a sideways glance, then grabbed his hand and cleaned off the seaweed mud.

Lance leaned in to take a look and found that all the crooked nails he had before had been pulled out, and new nails were just starting to grow.

“When I was unconscious, my hand seemed to hurt a few times,” Lance said, looking up at Wensir. “Did you help me pull them out?”

“Yeah.”

Wensir took the seaweed mud from the shell and covered the wound, then tied a knot with a small seaweed strap to prevent the mud from being washed away by the current.

“That’s amazing.”

Lance watched the whole process of Wensir applying the medicine and found that this seaweed mud could really exist in water, unlike ordinary herbs that would disperse upon contact with water; it was thick and clumpy.

Lance eagerly asked, “Wensir, how did you make the seaweed mud?”

Wensir tied the last seaweed strap, and upon hearing this question, he gave Lance a meaningful look.

He suddenly stuffed a remaining brown seaweed strap into Lance’s mouth, saying, “Swallow it.”

Lance instinctively chewed a few times, immediately stimulated by the fishy, spicy, and sticky sensation in his mouth. He quickly spat it out with a “pfft,” only to see a small clump of dark green seaweed mud wobbling away in front of him before it fell.

Lance: “…”

He seemed to have figured out where the seaweed mud Wensir applied to him came from.

At this moment, Wensir leisurely added, “Try spitting it out again.”

Lance choked a bit and had no choice but to carefully chew the seaweed strap in his mouth, telling himself that if he spat it out again, Wensir might grab the stuff he spat out and force it back into his mouth.

Just thinking about how the seaweed mud in Wensir’s hand might have come from that made Lance feel a bit embarrassed.

He really wanted to ask Wensir if his guess was correct, but looking at Wensir’s face, he felt he couldn’t bring himself to ask.

Ouch, it’s so spicy.

Lance was choked into sneezing several times—

A series of bubbles came out of Lance’s mouth, while Wensir sat beside him, his eyes filled with amusement.

After sitting for a while, Lance couldn’t sit still anymore. He swam up to Wensir and proposed again, “Can you teach me how to swim?”

This time, Wensir didn’t find another excuse to refuse. He glanced at Lance’s hands and said, “Okay.”

Lance’s eyes lit up, and he expressed his determination to Wensir, “I will study hard.”

Wensir nodded and gestured for Lance, “You swim for me to see first.”

Lance nodded, and under Wensir’s gaze, he slowly swam around the coral bone. The blue glow enveloped him in a hazy light, resembling a pearl in the deep sea, quietly radiating a warm glow.

If outsiders were here, they would definitely exclaim that this scene looked like a fairy tale.

The white mermaid’s movements were a bit clumsy, yet still very graceful.

This was the darling of the ocean.

The more beautiful a creature was, the more it attracted people’s possessiveness when it lacked the power to protect itself.

Wensir’s gaze flickered slightly.

After swimming a lap, Lance turned around and saw Wensir quietly watching him. He curiously asked, “Wensir?”

“Continue.”

Wensir said nonchalantly, “Faster.”

Lance nodded, letting go a bit, allowing his instincts to take over, and began to swing his tail more quickly.

This feeling was truly amazing. Lance discovered that he couldn’t think about his tail:

Once he deliberately thought about how to move his tail, it would become stiff and unresponsive;

But once he cleared his mind, his movements became very smooth.

Lance’s movements grew faster and faster.

After watching for a moment, Wensir began to swing his tail and chased after him.

“Wensir?”

Lance intended to swim around the coral bone to check the situation. He didn’t understand why Wensir suddenly followed him, even covering him and wrapping his arms around his waist.

Wensir rubbed his chin against Lance’s jaw, his expression turning excited, even extending his crimson tongue to lick Lance’s ear fin.

Just as Lance was shocked and about to struggle, Wensir suddenly swung his tail and swam quickly, so fast that Lance instantly forgot the little embarrassment in his heart.

Wensir stared at Lance’s focused and confused expression beneath him, smiled slightly, and leaned his lips close to Lance’s ear fin, whispering intermittently, “Remember my movements.”

After saying that, Wensir suddenly exerted force in his waist and made a sharp turn.

Lance’s eyes widened as he tried to swing his tail to keep up with Wensir’s rhythm, but it was quite difficult, and their tails kept accidentally rubbing against each other…

It felt strange.

Lance couldn’t help but let out a cry: “ya——yi——”

Wensir lowered his gaze and slowly slowed down his movements, “Not used to it?”

Accompanied by a heavy, breathy sound, Wensir’s warm breath sprayed onto Lance’s neck, making him shiver.

In the end, Lance couldn’t take it anymore. Taking advantage of Wensir’s momentary lapse, he broke free from his embrace, swam to the side, and explained to Wensir, “I’m sorry, I don’t really like… this teaching method.”

If they weren’t the same gender, Lance would have thought the other was doing it on purpose.

Wensir blinked, showing a surprised expression, “If not like this, then how should I teach?”

Lance: “…”

Was he really overthinking it?

“I’ve taught you the basic movements.”

Wensir said, stretching his body and swimming in the sea.

Wensir’s speed was incredibly fast, his beautiful tail swinging powerfully, his hands slicing through the water effortlessly as he spiraled upward: “There are no meat tentacles today… you should try to hunt for yourself.”

Lance was taken aback for a moment. He looked at the blue flames scattered like stars in the sky, then turned back to his white tail, showing a bewildered expression.

For the next three hours, Wensir sat high up, watching Lance continuously trying to catch the blue flames.

After all that effort, Lance felt a bit tired. He leaned against the coral bone, panting, and up to now, he hadn’t caught a single fish.

Just as Lance was about to try again, Wensir swam over, stopping Lance from continuing to hunt, and said, “Alright, that’s enough for today. You need to rest.”

“But I feel like I can still go on.”

Lance was a bit anxious and didn’t understand, “And I haven’t caught a single fish yet. I’m so hungry.”

Wensir didn’t speak. He raised an eyebrow and pointed at the meat tentacle at the “escape passage” entrance.

That meat tentacle was from the day before yesterday. Although it wasn’t very fresh, it wasn’t spoiled yet.

Why did it feel like Wensir was doing this on purpose?

Lance swam closer and asked a bit flatteringly, “Wensir, have you eaten?”

Wensir’s lips curled slightly, “I have.”

Lance: “…”

How was he supposed to respond to that?

Seeing that he couldn’t mooch a fish off Wensir, Lance could only sigh and swim over to the meat tentacle. After searching for a while, he finally found a spot to bite into, gnawing angrily.

On the other side, Wensir watched as Lance angrily bit into the meat tentacle, and he couldn’t help but let his tail sway a bit.

The little fish gnawing on the meat tentacle was really cute.

After eating a few bites, Lance, feeling full, thought for a moment and pushed the meat tentacle all the way to Wensir’s side.

Wensir was taken aback for a moment. He saw Lance pushing the meat tentacle to the spot where the tentacle had taken it before and curiously asked, “You don’t want it to block the hole anymore?”

Lance swam back and began stacking the scattered pearls beside the hole, explaining as he piled them up, “It’s too dangerous. If the tentacle comes to clean up and takes this meat tentacle away, then I’ll be exposed.”

Rather than exposing himself like that, it was better to take the initiative and use something else as a cover.

For example, using pearls if he could gather them on the spot.

Wensir watched as Lance went back and forth a few times carrying pearls, unsure of what expression to make: “I thought you really liked pearls.”

“I do, of course I do.”

Lance didn’t notice the slight grievance in Wensir’s tone as he said, “But this is the deep sea, and pearls are just like that. They take up space and are a hassle.”

Wensir: “…”

After moving the pearls, Lance deliberately left one behind.

Wensir’s eyes brightened: “You still left one behind.”

Lance clapped his hands and said, “Of course I have to leave one, so that tentacle won’t come back to play the game of losing pearls with me.”

He paused and concluded, “I didn’t expect that tentacle to be so childish.”

This pearl was specifically meant to fool the tentacle.

Wensir: “…”

“Hey, Wensir, you don’t look so good. What’s wrong?”

“…Nothing.”